Semiconductor devices are used in many electronic and other applications. Semiconductor devices comprise integrated circuits that are formed on semiconductor wafers by depositing many types of thin films of material over the semiconductor wafers, and patterning the thin films of material to form the integrated circuits.
Success of the semiconductor industry requires delivering higher performance at lower cost. Consequently, maintaining production costs within reasonable levels is one of the primary challenges in semiconductor manufacturing.
Improving product quality is another challenge in manufacturing semiconductor devices. For example, depositing thin films involves the challenge of maintaining a uniform deposition rate (both across wafer and within wafer) along with directional deposition for filling high aspect ratio features (ratio of depth of feature to the feature's width) such as vias and trenches. As feature sizes are continually scaled along with wafer size, there exists a continuous need to improve film deposition techniques.
Deposition equipment thus needs to reduce production cost, for example, by lowering processing time (or by increasing through-put) and by lowering down time (or maintenance time), while at the same time improving product quality. Continued success of the semiconductor industry requires overcoming these and other limitations.